Ecologia del delitto (1971)

Directed by Mario Bava [Other horror film: I vampiri (1957), Caltiki il mostro immortale (1959), La maschera del demonio (1960), Ercole al centro della Terra (1961), La ragazza che sapeva troppo (1963), I tre volti della paura (1963), La frusta e il corpo (1963), 6 donne per l’assassino (1964), Terrore nello spazio (1965), Operazione paura (1966), 5 bambole per la luna d’agosto (1970), Il rosso segno della follia (1970), Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga (1972), Lisa e il diavolo (1973), The House of Exorcism (1975), Schock (1977)]

Likely better known under titles such as Bay of Blood and Twitch of the Death Nerve, this Mario Bava film has been a movie I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. I came into it trying to temper my expectations, because I didn’t want to be disappointed (and I’ve heard some less-than-stellar reviews of this one), and I came out quite fascinated.

My expectations were somewhat simple – a bloody giallo with a decent mystery. Well, I don’t know if the mystery itself is that great, but the approach to the story is what really sold it to me, and I don’t know how many movies I’ve seen that had such an interesting final thirty minutes.

It starts off normal enough, with some murders happening around a bay (a fantastic setting, but I’ll touch on that shortly), and we’re introduced to a lot of characters, each with their own objectives and goals, so it felt as most gialli do. Once we’re let in on some secrets in the final thirty minutes though, the whole film becomes quite kinetic in a way I’ve not seen before.

And what I mean by kinetic is this: there are a bunch of people at the bay – an insect lover (Paul) and his medium wife (Anna), another man (Albert) and wife (Rennie), a guy who lives in a shack on the bay (Simon), and another guy who has a house nearby (Frank) – and about halfway through, things start getting wild. Paul pops in on Albert’s car, asking where Anna went – his wife went down to the shack, to speak to Simon. Later, Albert sees Paul run out of a house where a body was, and Rennie was one of the potential victims.

Needless to say, I may not be able to explain things well, but the point is this: a lot of things are happening, and at that point in time, we keep switching to different characters, giving us different perspectives all in this very close-knit area (most of the film takes place very close together, and I loved that), and it just felt so energetic and fun.

It’s hard to talk about great performances, because I thought all of the central characters did well. My favorite two would have been Leopoldo Trieste and Claudio Camaso (who has an interesting, and rather tragic, personal history). Laura Betti (A Hatchet for the Honeymoon) struck me as a bit stereotypical in her medium role, but others, such as Chris Avram (The Killer Reserved Nine Seats, L’ossessa), Luigi Pistilli (The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, A White Dress for Marialé), and Claudine Auger (The Black Belly of the Tarantula) were all solid.

Naturally, a big talking point about the film would be the gore, and the gore is quite solid throughout. I loved the double impalement, along with some throat slittings and someone getting stabbed with a spear, but I think the finest moment was a beautifully-choreographed decapitation – I saw the set-up, and was quite happy with the follow-through. A Bay of Blood certainly has some fine violence in it, and I dug it.

This film isn’t really comparable to most gialli I’ve seen, as it’s shorter and a bit more base in it’s intent, feeling at times like a classic 80’s slasher. Flashbacks are used to great effect toward the finale, but the story still comes across less like The Case of the Bloody Iris and more like Friday the 13th, which isn’t a bad thing whatsoever, as I suspect this might be a more digestible film for those who don’t want to spend an hour and a half with a more complex story.

If I’m being honest, I sort of expected to be disappointed with A Bay of Blood, but I wasn’t. It started off a little shaky (as great as those first kills were, things felt a bit average for a period of time), but about halfway in, it really grabbed me, and I loved most things about the final thirty minutes (even the off-the-wall, hilariously random final sequence). Definitely a fun time.

8/10